SEGA Genesis Mini - Review

After years of mediocre at best Genesis mini consoles made by AT Games, finally getting such a competent product has been incredibly refreshing. With the care and polish only an ex-console manufacturer could bring, and with renowned M2 behind the software expectations for this console were off the charts. Thankfully, the new Genesis Mini meets and beats those expectations with what's probably the best Mini console released so far.

From my first contact with the equally-small box it was evident that this was a quality product. As with the other mini consoles it's designed after the original box, and while obviously some stuff has to be different, they nailed the look of 90s SEGA. Of course, what really mattered were the insides of the box or, more specifically, what's inside: two controllers, the console, an HDMI cable, an USB cable and a power adapter. No words can explain just how cool it is to hold what's essentially a miniature-sized version of SEGA's most popular console, especially one that's so detailed with "working" (meaning they can be moved, but don't do anything) sliders and buttons just to replicate the feeling of the original hardware.

The controllers are equally as great-feeling as the console. They're not a 1:1 match to the originals in terms of materials and the fact that it's an USB controller, but the shape and feel of the buttons and d-pad is just right and that's what matters. Despite my excitement to try out the games and how they felt, I spent a few minutes just marvelling at how they had finally done the system justice... and suffering a pretty big case of nostalgia overload as well.

However it was finally time to test out the thing so I plugged it in, appreciated Yuzo Koshiro's music for a few seconds and started Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (which, fun fact, was the first game on the original console I'd played), and everything felt just as right as before. The game played fantastically well, the music sounded great and the pixels were very sharp, and while there's definitely some input and sound lag added by the emulation (discovered by the inifinitely-more-professional Digital Foundry analysis), I wasn't able to notice it nor did it bother me at all. After trying a couple of the other games, they all felt just as great to play as Sonic 2 did, so going with M2 was definitely a great move.

Speaking of the software, the console has some extra features like save states (very useful as not every game featured saving originally), a not-so-good CRT filter, some backgrounds to make fill the blank space left by the non-16:9 aspect ratio, and even an option to stretch the image if you want a full screen experience. Besides the disappointing CRT filter, these are very welcomed inclusions to enchance the 42 games included in the console, which is still an absurd number compared to the merely 20 games of the competitors. 

It says something about the SEGA Genesis library that even with 42 games some classics had to be left out, but considering how they included twice as many games as the standard I can't really complain about this. Two of those titles are even new ports made by M2 of games that either didn't come out for the system at all (Darius) or did in incredibly low quantities (Tetris), which makes their inclusion positively surprising and shows the love the people behind this project put into it.

4.5 out of 5

The SEGA Genesis Mini is probably the
single best mini console out right now, and despite some games that should've made it in it's a love letter to all SEGA fans, either

those that already experienced the console, or those thata discovering it for the first time.